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Molasses Custard

Gently flavored by blackstrap molasses – a mineral-rich, natural sweetener – this custard has quickly become a favorite dessert in our home, and one my four-year-old relishes. Molasses custard is well-suited to winter’s supper tables – it’s soft, sweet and satisfying. Dense in wholesome fats from pastured egg yolks and fresh cream, molasses custard is not a particularly light dessert, though it is dense in vitamin A, riboflavin, selenium, phosphorus and calcium.

molasses custard

By Jenny
Published: February 16, 2010

Yield:Approximately 6 Servings

Prep:45 mins

Cook:45 (baking) mins

Ready In:1 hr 30 mins

In searching through my vintage cookbooks, I happened across a recipe for molasses custard, and I fell in love. The original recipe didn’t produce a smooth custard, and broke easily, but the inclusion of a greater fat content due to the use of egg yolks, as opposed to whole eggs, and cream as opposed to milk produced a creamier, rich custard. This recipe is adapted from the Ladies Home Journal Cookbook, published in 1960. This recipe was featured in February’s Recipe Cards.

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Grease a large custard dish, soufflé dish or individual ramekins and set them aside.

Gently stir beaten egg yolks, one quart heavy cream or two cups heavy cream and two cups whole milk together with one-quarter cup blackstrap molasses and a dash unrefined sea salt until well-blended and uniform in color.

Pour the mixture into your greased dish or individual ramekins and place them in a deep baking dish, filing the baking dish dish with enough warm water to reach a depth of about one inch.

Bake the custard for about forty minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the custard comes out clean.

About Jenny

Jenny McGruther is a wife, mother and cooking instructor specializing in real and traditional foods. She started Nourished Kitchen in 2007. Her work has been featured on CNN, the Globe & Mail, the Atlantic, the Christian Science Monitor, Denver Post and WebMD. You can find her first book, The Nourished Kitchen features more than 160 wholesome, traditional foods recipes.

You should definitely try this recipe. We LOVE custard, but I don’t like to use a lot of sugar. Molasses, while it is a sweetener, is very mineral-rich and so I don’t feel quite as bad sweetening desserts and other dishes with it. Hope you like it.

I know exactly how you feel about vintage cookbooks. They are such a treasure. I have a beautiful little collectionc going. Some are close to falling apart. Wish I could land my hands on a pre-20th century cookbook. Fortunately, you can find online versions of those. Have you looked into the old Time Life Series: Foods of the World, yet? Very fun series of books.

Hi!
I am making this recipe as I type, and the list of ingredients calls for 2 cups HC and 1 cup whole milk.
Then in the directions, it calls for 2 cups HC and 2 cups WM.
So? Is it 3 cups total or 4 cups total.
I just don’t want to ruin it.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. My husband and I can’t wait to try it!

omg i love custard of all kinds. with enough egg yolks, cream and vanilla, i find custard usually only needs a couple Tablespoons- 1/4 cup sugar like you have here. perfect! also custard makes a great, protien and good-fat packed breakfast when it’s leftover.

I’m with you on custard sweetness – more than 1/4 cup is too much. When I was testing the molasses custard recipe, I thought that the molasses on its own wouldn’t be sweete enough, so I actually added a tablespoon or two of sucanat and it was WAY too sweet.

Egg white contains a substance called avidin which blocks the absorption of biotin – a critical vitamin. In our home, I try hard to make sure we eat more yolks than whites and that we never eat whites on their own. For this reason, we go through more yolks than we do whites. I do store the egg whites and use them for crafts and for personal care (they make a good facial masque).

For a nourishing, warm breakfast food that includes molasses…my children and I enjoy organic brown rice with an egg yolk, molasses, cinnamon, vanilla and organic milk. Just ad the egg yolk as the rice is almost done, stir gently..place the lid back on for a few minutes to hold in the heat. Then ad a dash of vanilla. We usually ad the molasses, cinnamon and milk after individual bowls are prepared. Yum…high in B vitamins and very grounding for high energy children;)

I read a book titled “The Coconut Oil Miracle” by Bruce Fife, C.N., N.D. It is a fantastic superfood that prevents heart disease and cancer. It also kill any lipid coated bacteria or virus (including the HIV virus). I use it every day as a cooking oil, a skin moisturizer, and much more. Red palm oil is great as well because it contains CoQ10 and vitamin A. I think everyone should read this book and all his other books as well.

Jenny, in relation to your last step, “Serve immediately as this dish does not store well,” do you mean that this is not a custard to chill in the refrigerator before serving? Is that an option at all? Just wondering if there is any option to make it ahead of time in this way.

I’m replying to myself, but for the benefit of anyone who reads this and wants to know; I did refrigerate half of the custards I made, and they are EQUALLY delish chilled! So they can be chilled/stored. Thank you for this great recipe, Jenny! What interesting and unique flavors!

Oh my! I missed the first comment! I’m happy to hear they worked well chilled for you. The custard always broke when I prolonged serving it – and I *almost* didn’t post it, but the spectacular flavor was so good I just had to share it.

I am excited to try your Molasses Custard, but do not have any blackstrap molassses. I have “regular” molasses…I forget the brand…the one with the rabbit on the label? Would that be okay to use? I’m sure it’s nutritionally inferior, though.

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